MORNING
I’m not a gift person, either giving or getting. But I found something for Alaine this Friday. Don’t worry, even if she reads blogs, this is still a surprise. One gift I could use is a new seat for the red scooter. Right now, it is recovered with duct tape. You know the saying, if you can’t repair it with duct tape, you didn’t use enough duct tape. Did you know duct tape glue gets soft and bubbles when exposed to sunlight?
And you know who is getting as annoying on-line as Amazon used to be? These biz-rate nincompoops. They are creeps, getting into every search. Hey, you nutsacks, when I want a book, I’ll ask for a book. Trivia: did you know there is a name for your old wood-burning kit? “Pyrography.” That’s one toy designed to try the kid’s patience.
Did I ever tell you how I used to insult women who argued with me at my office? (It is very difficult to argue with me at work because I never argue with ignoramuses.) I’d ask her, “I’m curious, how long as it been since a man asked you back on a second date?”
Then, no matter what she replies, or if she does not reply, frown and shake your head and say, “Ooooo, that long, huh?” Works anywhere, but I prefer the office because everybody is listening. Yeah, well, I’m in a cranky mood. In fact, take a look at these (in the picture over there). The cardboard Xmas ornaments I told you about. I learned a lot with these. I’m painting them black. What? Well, let me answer that this how: either I’m trying to start a new trend or I’m just learning and black is the only color I have at the moment. Wrong answer, Ken. Then again, you never were the sharpest dart on the board.
And that makes these things hand-painted. Fifty bucks, please. Anyway, I learned if you have six holes in the design, you have to disconnect the blade six times. Okay, chalk that up to experience. Forget trying to tape on your template, get spray glue. Tape comes off when you cut near the edge. The smallest interior cut you can make is determined by the size of the retaining prong on your saw blade, at least in this model.
More trivia. What is the most successful food product ever marketed. Hints: not a soft drink. It is marked up 2,000% and was unheard of a century ago. It wiped out the traditional breakfast. Yep, cereal, in particular cornflakes. While the flakes were around before, it was the addition of two commodities that spelled success: sugar and advertising. Massive advertising, around 25% of the price of each box. But cereals that spend less don’t make it. Every trick of the trade, from cartoon characters to a free gift in every box, has been pioneered by the cereal industry. It changed people’s lifestyles. (And I changed mine back by no longer consuming any American corn or corn derivatives.)
NOON
What on Earth? It’s the pencil I told you for writing around corners. Laugh all you want, you should see the lady I met over this. It was my first project on the 2” cut-off saw I promised you a better picture of (of the little saw). It is bitter cold today so the Goldwing clutch cable has not arrived yet. I must wait here all day for it, so I’m dedicating the time to learning, once and for all, how to get the Arduino to record data on an SD card. C+ programmers like to invent non-standard commands. I suppose that is because they confuse never being able to fit in anywhere with being non-conformists.
Okay, I’ll tell you. The pencil was an old one I had around that the eraser dried out. So I tested the angle setting on the little saw but was not tightening the knob sufficiently. I got them all wrong trying to make a square. The green base is a lump of plasticene I use to anchor odd-shaped items while the glue dries. Yes, she’s a blonde, French, I think. Nice hand-writing, for sure.
I gave her the phone call and picked up there may be a little resistance there, probably the wrong thing to try on me. But I suggested a coffee at her convenience. That’s to find out if she’s got wheels, see. I don’t, as a rule, date women who need a chauffeur. She isn’t a hairdresser, she is a seamstress, but she runs her own shop. That’s important because I consider it so. She is certainly more cautious than after she’s had a few, which is normal as long as it is not out of control.
I offered no input other than that we should meet up. I’m long since fed up with women who have to be coaxed along. That’s one thing about my ex, she knew when to take charge. And she was open to suggestion--even if she had formerly not enjoyed it with the last person. What a matchless quality that turned out to be! We (the new gal) agreed to touch bases later in the week.
And here’s the close-up of the cut-off saw. My fingertips show you the tiny scale of this item, but it is not built to go contracting. It is fully functional for what it is designed for, with a belt drive and a safety switch. Anything else before it gets dark? Yes, I found a house in South Miami, but it turned out to be twenty blocks too far south. The price was right. Of all the driving around JZ and I did, we never went down that road. And I won’t now. Those people are not from where I’m from.
AFTERNOON
I once and for all to get the Arduino to store data on an SD card, 1 byte. That was one headache of a project, but I got it working. What? You want the answer? Okay, unless you wire the card up yourself, which ruins a perfectly good card, the idea is to use a shield (adapter card) with a card slot, or a compatible “breakout” board. The trouble once more is the stupid crop of programmers the colleges have been churning out since the 90s. Which came first, the idiot or the programmer? I can’t tell.
Except nobody told the third idiot who designed the memory card that fits into the card slot. And anybody who’s tried to work with HTML knows what happens then you get a daisy chain of idiots on the loose. Prime example: MicroSoft. So you basically have to learn Arduino code and go searching for the software reassign. And undo it. This took three hours. The forum “experts”, you’ll notice, never just tell you the solution like I just did.
This is mentally exhausting work, so drop back another time to see if I get the thing to read/write. All I’ve done so far is get the hardware to recognize a card is present. We are not out of the weeds by a long shot. But if I can see it (the card), the rest is logic that only works one way. And that’s to see it from the Arduino as the computer can never see it. If it could, I’d load the code there and walk it over to the next unit instead of swapping expensive and delicate chips.
Added later: in response to questions, I guess I should have pointed out that there are two different brands of card readers. One of them is an Ethernet shield, the other an ordinary card reader. It is the Ethernet shield that causes the problem, and part of the problem is the people giving the instructions don't say when they are using the Ethernet model as a card reader.
EVENING
This evening has not happened yet.
ADDENDUM
Because this oldie cannot be re-posted often enough. The top ten instances of when it is appropriate to use the F-word, throughout history.
10th – “Scattered f***ing showers, my ass!” – Noah, 4314 BC
9th – “How the f*** did you work that out?” – Pythagoras, 126 BC
8th – “You want WHAT on the f***ing ceiling?” – Michelangelo, 1566
7th – “Where did all those f***ing Indians come from?” – Custer, 1877
6th – “It does so f***ing look like her!” – Picasso, 1926
5th – “Where the f*** are we?” – Amelia Earhart, 1937
4th – “Any f***ing idiot could understand that.” – Einstein, 1938
3rd – “What the f*** was that?” – Mayor Of Hiroshima , 1945
2nd – “I need this parade like I need a f***ing hole in the head!” – JFK,1963
1st – "Aw, c’mon. Who the f*** is going to find out?” – Tiger Woods, 2009
Quick reminder. This blog is for intellectuals with a mild sense of humor, so if you don’t like something I say, get your own blog. And take it down the road a long ways--if you expect any readership. Mine is pretty established.
Today’s Togla Treat
"I liked this country better when nobody was in charge."
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